In the first few years of the Twenty-first Century, many ISPs in the United States have been facing challenges. The stock-market for the telecommunications and IT-related industries went down sharply, and many ISPs were forced to go down, restructure itself, sell itself to another company, or merge with others. The slower-than-expected growth of broadband services, key decisions on broadband open access matters all added harshness to the environment in which they have to survive.